The acting CEO of Dalex Finance, Joe Jackson, has disputed the cedi depreciation figures presented by the Minister of Finance, Dr. Mohammed Amin Adam.
According to Mr. Jackson, the minister’s data do not match the figures from the Bank of Ghana (BoG) for the same period.
At his monthly economic briefing, the minister claimed that the exchange rate had largely stabilised, with the cedi’s depreciation against the US Dollar halving from 54.2% at the end of November 2022 to 27.8% at the end of December 2023.
The finance minister also projected that the cedi would strengthen in the medium term following the completion of the domestic debt exchange programme.
“But for recent pressures we are seeing on exchange rate movements, the exchange rate has been largely stabilised with the depreciation of the cedi against the US Dollar halving from 54.2% at the end of Nov 2022 to 27.8% at the end of Dec 2023.”
However, Mr Jackson contends that these figures are inconsistent with the central bank numbers, suggesting a discrepancy in the reported economic performance.
“The minister may have gotten his figures a little wrong. I don’t think that in May 2023, it was that kind of figure.
“If you go online and you look at Bank of Ghana’s rate and other quoted rates, anybody can go to www.xe.com, put US dollar to cedi rate, you will see that today’s rate is quoted as 14.55 coming from the central bank.
“On May 24, 2024, the quoted rate there is 10.75. Today, the quoted rate is 14.55. The depreciation is around 24%,” he insisted.
The Ghana cedi continues to lose ground to the major trading currencies this week, especially the US dollar.
Businesses have expressed their frustration over the current state of the cedi.
The cedi was trading against the dollar at GH₵ 11.98 on Monday, May 20.
However, it crossed GH₵ 15.24 at the close of business day on May 16 at the forex bureaus, which are now trading at GH₵ 14.85, resulting in a depreciation rate of close to 20% since the beginning of the year.